\  ne  xru^vwnd   or 


\.n^    c\  er 


^1 


J.  n,Cc\-r\T\e.\{i 


S.  I .  OS" 


^^ 


^^^ 


^i  X\\^  (^^fiiogicitl 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


'^6 


■^^, 


'^ 


BV  1471  .C36  1903 
[Canfield,  James  Hulme] 

1847-1909. 
The  training  of  the  clergy 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  CLERGY 

From  the  Standpoint  of  a  Layman,  What    Constitutes 

Adequate  Preparation  for  the  Priesthood  of  the 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  CLERGY 

From  the  Standpoint  of  a  Layman,  What  Constitutes  Adequate 
Preparation  for  the  Priesthood  of  Our  Church* 

Small  apology  need  be  made  for  the  abruptness,  the  assertiveness, 
and  the  one-sidedness  of  this  paper.  Its  length  does  not  measure 
at  all  the  importance  of  its  theme.  In  the  twenty  minutes  allotted 
me  this  morning,  it  is  impossible  to  discuss  this  practical  and  far- 
reaching  inquiry  in  either  a  very  logical  or  a  very  philosophical 
or  a  very  complete  manner.  You  must  be  content  with  a  mere 
outline,  a  skeleton  which  you  yourselves  must  clothe  with  living 
flesh  if  it  is  to  be  rounded  out- and  made  to  appear  in  good  form. 

It  is  entirely  proper  that  this  question  should  be  presented  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  layman.  Very  humbly,  and  because  of  their  needs, 
the  laity  assert  that  the  Church  exists  for  their  advancement  and 
betterment;  that  on  its  divine  and  on  its  human  side,  in  spirit  and 
in  forms  of  organization  and  of  administration,  the  Church  was  cre- 
ated for  the  laity.  The  Church  does  not  exist  for  the  three  orders 
of  the  ministry,  it  exists  for  the  laity,  and  the  three  orders  are  or- 
ders of  service  to  the  laity.  The  Church  and  the  three  orders 
are  entirely  and  absolutely  and  always  subservient  to  the  needs 
of  the  laity.  The  Church  and  all  its  orders  and  forms  and  rites  and 
ceremonies  must  meet  that  supreme  test  of  all  organization  and 
effort,  sacred  or  secular,  ecclesiastical  or  civil  or  social:  the  ef- 
ficiency with  which  it  advances  and  enlarges  and  renders  more 
completely  satisfactory  the  life  of  the  individual  man.  The  laity 
have  a  right,  therefore,  to  be  heard  in  this  matter. 

And,  dear  brethren  of  the  Clergy  and  of  the  Episcopate,  the 
laity  have  a  far  deeper  interest  in  education  for  the  priesthood 
than  you  perhaps  imagine.  The  subject  is  more  often  a  topic  of 
conversation  among  them  than  you  perhaps  will  readily  believe. 
The  intelligence  of  this  interest  is  greater  than  you  may  think  pos- 
sible. But  this  interest  and  this  intelligence  would  be  far  greater 
and  far  more  effective  if  both  were  recognized  at  your  hands,  and 
recognized  as  of  possible  and  practical  value. 

With  regard  to  the  problem  under  consideration,  let  it  be  un- 
derstood with  some  emphasis  that  this  is  adequate  preparation  for 
one  who  is  to  be  of  the  second  rank  in  the  Church,  for  one  who 

^     *  Read  »t  the   Church   Congresi,   Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  Norember  4,  1903,  bjr  Jame*  H* 
Caafield,  Librarian,  Columbia  University  in  the  City  of  New  York. 


in  the  language  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  is  to  receive  "the 
Order  of  Priesthood."  I  lay  especial  stress  upon  this,  because  it  is 
not  difficult  to  believe  that  some  will  say  that  an  impossible  stand- 
ard is  being  raised,  that  the  ideal  is  purely  theoretic  and  cannot  be 
realized,  that  to  insist  upon  it  would  mean  the  emptying  of  many 
of  our  pulpits.  But,  men  and  brethren,  let  me  assure  you,  first, 
that  in  all  kindness  yet  in  all  sincerity  the  laity  believe  that  worse 
could  happen  to  our  beloved  Church  than  the  emptying  of  some 
of  her  pulpits!  And  second,  that  the  laity  marvel  that  the  Church 
seems  to  feel  it  necessary  to  recognize  in  orders  so  much  that  is 
confessedly  weak,  while  it  treats  in  such  a  left-handed  manner  cer- 
tain nearby  sources  of  strength.  I  refer  to  the  use  of  laymen 
themselves,  much  more  generally  and  in  a  much  more  definite  way 
than  now.  Many  a  priest  is  carrying  his  entire  work  alone,  with 
great  and  unnecessary  wear  and  tear,  wondering  anxiously  when 
he  will  be  able  to  have  that  long-hoped-for  assistant;  when  he  could 
easily  secure  from  among  his  own  people  one  or  more  lay-readers, 
to  his  great  relief  and  not  infrequently  to  the  edification  of  the 
entire  parish.  For  it  is  still  true  that  there  is  no  greater  power 
than  the  pure  Word  of  God  read  intelligently  and  intelligibly  be- 
fore the  people,  and  no  thought  or  language  more  comforting  or 
more  helpful  than  that  of  our  service  presented  sympathetically, 
day  after  day,  in  the  usual  place  of  worship.  And  how  many- 
laymen  would  be  quickened  into  new  life  by  their  careful  prepara- 
tion for  such  service,  by  their  new  or  renewed  study  of  the  Word, 
by  their  constant  effort  to  prove  worthy  of  such  confidence  and  to 
fit  themselves  to  lead  the  people  in  these  devotions.  There  is  no 
reason  why  there  should  not  be  at  least  three  such  lay-readers  in 
every  parish  having  no  other  assistants:  one  for  the  morning  ser- 
vice, one  for  the  evening  service,  one  for  special  services  and  to 
relieve  each  of  the  others  when  necessary — and  all  for  mission 
work  as  far  as  their  daily  vocations  will  permit.  This  work  would 
never  be  a  financial  burden  to  the  parish,  because  it  should  always 
be  gratuitous:  the  contribution  which  these  citizens  of  our  ecclesi- 
astical commonwealth  gladly  make  towards  the  common  interest 
and  common  betterment.  Such  a  thing  as  a  paid  lay-reader  ought  to 
be  absolutely  unknown  in  our  Communion.  There  is  danger  in 
this  from  every  point  of  view:  and  there  is  no  necessity  for  it 
whatever. 

And,  brethren,  the  laity  would  really  like  to  know  if  it  is  not  pos- 
sible, by  some  form  of  organization  or  of  re-organization,  to  make 
more  of  the  Diaconate.  By  the  early  history  and  practice  of  our 
Church  it  would  seem  to  have  been  quite  as  distinct  and  permanent 
an  order  as  either  of  the  other  two:  not  simply  a  landing  on  the  ec- 
clesiastical stairway  where  men  may  stop  a  moment  to  catch  breath 


before  again  climbing  upwards.  The  laity  believe  that  many  a  man 
may  be  ready  for  this  position  long  before  he  is  adequately  prepared 
for  the  priesthood:  nay,  more,  that  many  men  may  enter  upon 
this  work  who  may  never  reach  the  priesthood.  The  laity  wonder 
if  it  is  impossible  to  revive  or  secure  a  permanent  Diaconate:  and 
can  see  a  large  measure  of  usefulness  in  such  an  order  in  a  some- 
what modified  form  from  that  known  at  present.  If  this  cannot  be, 
then  at  least  let  the  Diaconate  be  a  state  of  probation,  the  real 
(not  the  nominal)  testing  ground  of  all  who  are  to  enter  the 
priesthood.  Let  those  only  who  respond  in  a  satisfactory  way  to 
prolonged  severe  trial  and  examination  pass  to  the  higher  position. 
Let  the  rubric  be  amended  so  as  to  read  "and  here  it  must  be  de- 
clared unto  the  Deacon  that  he  must  continue  in  that  office  of  a 
Deacon  at  least  a  whole  year,  and  until  it  shall  seem  clear  to  the 
Bishop  that  he  is  perfect  and  well  expert  in  all  things  appertain- 
ing to  ecclesiastical  administration." 

It  seems  necessary  and  desirable  to  make  a  brief  preliminary 
statement  as  to  the  field,  its  character  and  itS'  demands.  All  lay- 
men still  hold  the  ministry  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  of  al! 
human  vocations.  He  who  enters  upon  this  form  of  service  should 
walk  humbly  before  God  and  man.  He  who  accepts  this  form  of 
leadership  should  feel  keenly  the  responsibility  of  his  position:  a 
responsibility  always  entirely  commensurate  with  his  opportunity. 
He  who  undertakes  to  wield  such  a  social,  civic  and  moral  force  as 
a  modern  parish,  should  know  himself  and  his  task  well,  should  be 
quick  of  eye  and  foot  and  pliant  and  strong  of  wrist.  No  calling 
makes  greater  or  more  imperative  or  more  varied  demands  upon 
body,  mind  and  spirit,  than  does  this.  That  ordinary  and  one  may 
almost  say  national  resourcefulness,  which  makes  an  American 
about  as  strong  and  about  as  successful  in  one  position  as  in 
another,  while  it  counts  for  much,  counts  for  less  in  the  ministry 
than  in  any  other  form  of  human  activity.  More  than  almost  any- 
where else  is  there  need  of  special  temper,  special  fitness,  special 
preparation:  need  of  a  very  "effectual  calling."  An  attorney  works 
continually  with  his  kind,  with  men  who  are  his  peers  or  his  super- 
iors, but  always  with  men  whose  minds  are  constantly  and  seri- 
ously given  to  the  consideration  of  the  same  subjects  that  he  is 
considering,  whose  habits  of  thought  and  whose  general  temper 
and  interests  are  quite  identical  with  his  own.  The  physician  is 
practically  absolute  in  both  theory  and  practice,  and  cannot  well 
be  gainsaid  because  he  is  so  generally  silent.  He  deals  with  those 
who  are  either  entirely  ignorant  of  what  is  passing  in  his  mind 
or  are  temporarily  too  weak  in  mind  and  body  to  take  issue  with 
him  even  if  they  would.  The  teacher  has  constantly  before  him  the 
immature  mind,  the  brain  which  is  still  gelatinous  and  without  def- 


inite  outline,  the  human  intellect  and  the  human  will  still  weak  and 
staggering,  as  wobbly  and  as  ungainly  as  a  new-born  colt — and  as 
easy  to  direct  and  train,  if  one  only  knows  how.  The  specialist  in 
any  of  the  dozen  or  more  callings  which  have  already  risen  to 
the  dignity  of  new  professions,  speaks  with  final  authority  to 
those  who  are  in  business  or  other  relations  with  him  because  of 
their  confidence  in  his  strength  and  general  fitness  to  be  their  guide, 
and  who  expressly  surrender  themselves  to  his  direction.  But  the 
minister  must  take  a  single  theme  which  is  at  least  two  thousand 
years  old  and  upon  every  variation  of  which  myriads  of  human  be- 
ings have  already  exhausted  their  highest  powers,  a  theme  in  which 
the  human  heart  has  great  interest  but  against  the  general  trend 
and  conclusions  of  which  that  same  human  heart  seems  to  rebel; 
and  he  must  so  vitalize  this  and  revivify  it  and  clothe  it  anew  that 
it  shall  take  strong  hold  with  convincing  power  upon  old  and  young, 
men  and  women,  the  learned  and  illiterate,  the  wise  and  the  fool- 
ish, the  strong  mind  and  the  feeble  mind,  the  sober  and  the  frivol- 
ous, the  interested  and  the  indifferent,  those  who  are  always  and 
everywhere  easily  persuaded  and  those  who  always  stand  so  straight 
that  they  are  in  danger  of  falling  backward:  to  all  of  these,  and  to 
more  and  other,  the  minister  must  be  leader  and  guide  and  friend, 
ever  discerning  the  truth  that  is  eternal,  and  quickening  and  in- 
spiring all  these  to  make  it  their  truth,  their  very  own,  part  of  their 
own  inmost  lives. 

And  he  must  have  sympathies  so  warm  and  so  strong  that  he  is 
welcomed  at  every  fireside,  where  he  halves  all  trouble  and  sor- 
row and  doubles  all  joy  by  sharing  both;  yet  of  all  men  he  must 
place  an  alert  and  well-balanced  and  keenly  appreciative  and  per- 
ceptive intellect  at  the  very  threshold  of  his  faculties  and  powers, 
directing  them  all,  holding  all  in  check  in  order  that  all  may  have 
full  play.  Otherwise  sympathy  soon  wears  out  his  heart  with  ex- 
cess  of  emotion,   or   becomes   maudlin   and   misleading. 

The  demand  for  absolute  integrity  in  all  mental  processes,  for 
unswerving  honesty  in  all  relations,  for  unquestioned  sincerity  in 
all  moral  and  spiritual  manifestations,  for  warmth  and  glow  of  the 
whole  emotional  nature,  is  imperative  and  unceasing.  Once,  even 
once,  let  action  seem  cold  and  formal  and  perfunctory,  manifest 
even  the  slightest  patronizing  spirit,  let  the  shadow  of  doubt  be 
cast  upon  the  sincerity  of  purpose  or  the  unselfishness  of  motive, 
and  the  first  step  has  been  taken  on  a  downward  path  almost  sheer 
in  its  descent. 

There  is  still  another  side  to  all  this.  Someone  has  well  de- 
scribed a  modern  parish  as  not  only  a  field  but  a  force.  These  peo- 
ple are  to  be  set  right  not  only  with  God  but  with  their  fellow  men. 
Indeed,  we  are  coming  to  understand,  I   had  almost  said  we  are 


only  just  coming  to  understand,  that  we  can  be  set  right  with  God 
only  by  assuming  correct  relations  with  our  fellow  men.  It  is 
difficult  to  understand  how  we  can  manifest  love  to  God  except 
through  our  very  efficient  interest  in  God's  creatures:  and  this  in- 
terest must  cover  not  only  the  more  limited  personal  relations, 
but  those  general  and  broader  though  none  the  less  exacting  rela- 
tions which  constitute  human  society  and  the  modern  community 
or  state.  And  so  the  minister  is  not  only  teacher  and  monitor  and 
guide,  but  in  the  largest  and  best  sense  of  the  word  he  is  a  states- 
man. Not  a  politician,  even  in  the  good  sense  of  the  word:  for  the 
choice  between  political  parties  ought  to  be  simply  a  choice  of 
means  for  attaining  the  same  great  end,  good  government;  and 
this  choice  should  be  made  freely  and  without  disturbing  far 
more  important  parochial  relations.  But  a  statesman,  in  that  he  is 
continually  setting  the  faces  of  his  people  towards  that  which  is 
thoughtful  and  considerate  and  unselfish  and  wise  and  large-mind- 
ed in  all  public  affairs.  Possibly,  since  the  struggle  for  communal 
interests  and  communal  righteousness  is  so  constant  and  so  severe, 
it  were  better  to  describe  the  minister  as  a  regimental  or  brigade 
or  division  commander.  With  the  heart  of  his  people  right  to- 
wards God,  he  organizes  them  for  that  sort  of  warfare  which  is 
correctly  described  by  the  phrase  "church  militant" — a  far  safer 
temper  and  position  than  that  which  contents  itself  with  being 
merely  a  church  protest-ant,  so  often  alas!  quickly  becoming  the 
church  dormant.  In  this  great  effort  to  revive  and  strengthen 
neighborhood  feeling  and  neighborly  interest,  he  organizes  his 
people  thoroughly,  seeing  that  each  has  something  definite  to  do, 
studying  the  peculiar  fitness  of  each,  striving  as  far  as  possible  to 
keep  square  pegs  out  of  round  holes.  Here  is  the  demand  for 
tactfulness  born  of  experience  and  of  some  sad  experience,  per- 
haps, for  a  knowledge  of  men,  an  acquaintance  with  human  nature 
in  all  its  phases,  ability  to  adapt  means  to  ends,  resourcefulness, 
shrev/dness,  genuine  administrative  power.  Above  all,  right  here 
he  must  have  the  grace  and  strength  to  avoid  that  greatest  of 
temptations,  a  "brilliant  administration":  in  which  the  personality 
of  the  leader  is  ever  resplendent,  and  the  rank  and  file  are  ever  in 
shadow,  in  the  background.  He  must  learn  that  most  difficult  of 
all  lessons,  the  lesson  of  self-effacement,  the  lesson  of  patience,  the 
lesson  of  doing  slowly  and  painfully  and  inefficiently  through  others 
that  which  he  can  do  much  better  and  so  much  more  quickly 
alone.  "The  trouble  is,"  cried  Theodore  Parker  in  those  trying 
days  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle,  "the  trouble  is  that  God  can 
wait  for  man's  cooperation  and  I  can't  "  Yet  it  is  better  to  be 
ten  years  in  reaching  a  given  point  and  have  with  you  an  appre- 
ciative,  intelligent,    self-respecting   people,   who    know   what   they 


fight  for  and  love  what  they  know,  than  to  reach  the  same  goal  in 
half  the  time  by  your  own  unaided  strength,  by  your  own  dominant 
mind,  by  your  own  masterful  spirit — surrounded  by  a  confused, 
dazed,  perplexed,  half-appreciative  and  half-irritated  people.  This 
last  is  the  method  of  that  power  which  drops  from  the  dying  hand 
of  what  the  world  often  unwisely  calls  greatness:  but  the  first  is 
the  possibly  unseen  path  of  those  who  create  vital  organisms,  the 
constitution-makers  of  the  world,  of  those  whose  finite  work  is 
taken  up  in  part  at  least  by  a  divine  hand  and  woven  in  and  in 
with  that  divine  plan  which  is  enduring  and  eternal. 

This  then  is  the  demand  which  the  conditions  of  to-day  and  the 
mind  and  temper  of  to-day  make  upon  the  ministry.  Nor  should 
we  be  guilty  of  the  only  too  common  error  of  believing  that  this 
demand  differs  materially  in  different  parishes:  that  the  demand  for 
high  character  and  sound  preparation  which  falls  upon  the  rector 
of  a  rural  parish  is  less  than  that  which  comes  to  one  responsible 
for  the  administration  of  a  parish  in  the  small  town  or  inland 
city,  and  that  this  again  falls  below  that  of  a  metropolitan  organ- 
ization. That  as  between  parishes  there  may  be  a  difference  in 
the  peculiar  qualities  which  must  be  more  dominent  to  insure  suc- 
cess, and  a  difference  in  the  constant  and  hourly  pressure  upon  the 
ecclesiastical  leader,  may  be  and  doubtless  is  true:  but  that  strength 
of  character  and  sufficiency  of  preparation  and  experience  and 
equipment  may  be  safely  scaled  down  from  Pittsburg  to  Podunk  or 
from  New  York  to  Navesink,  is  a  terrible  mistake  in  both  judg- 
ment and  practice.  Wherever  a  weak  country  parish  is  found  to- 
day, it  is  weak  generally  because  of  this  error.  It  is  a  very 
human  error  and  affects  other  undertakings  than  parish  building. 
With  unconscious  simple-mindedness  and  shortsightedness,  with 
great  thoughtlessness,  yet  with  perfect  sincerity,  many  Eastern 
educators  still  recommend  to  full  chairs  in  Western  universities — 
institutions  in  which  the  average  line  of  vital  instruction  and  in- 
spiring personal  influence  rises  quite  as  high  as  it  does  east  of  the 
Alleghenies — persons  who  could  scarcely  find  places  in  their  home 
high  schools.  Exactlj'  so  do  some  Bishops  pass  on  to  that  vague 
section  called  the  West,  and  send  to  the  country  villages,  ministers 
who  have  proved  to  be  absolute  failures  in  their  own  dioce&es  or 
in  some  city  parishes.  We  need  a  great  awakening  to  the  truth  that 
often  most  of  all  does  the  rural  parish  or  that  of  the  small  town 
make  the  very  strongest  demands  upon  every  faculty  and  power, 
and  with  but  a  tithe  of  the  aid  so  easily  within  call  in  nearly  every 
city  organization:  that  in  the  rural  parishes  are  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  character  and  religious  belief  which  in  time  form  the 
chief  cornerstones  of  all  our  civic  greatness:  that  in  such  parishes 
there  is   far  more   interest  taken   in  the  personality  of  the  rector 


and  far  more  known  about  the  rector  because  of  far  more  con- 
stant and  intimate  personal  relations:  and  that  there  is  no  happier 
or  more  blessed  lot  than  to  go  in  and  out  among  these  people,  their 
counselor  and  friend,  their  pattern  and  inspiration,  their  leader  and 
guide,  till  two  and  possibly  three  generations  call  yon  blessed; 
and  at  the  last  the  whole  countryside  mourns  beside  your  open 
grave  and  the  little  children  cry  in  the  village  street  when  they 
hear  that  you  have  gone. 

Pardon  me  if  I  seem  to  dwell  too  long  upon  the  field,  if  I  even 
seem  to  magnify  the  office.  Unless  you  realize  the  estimate 
which  the  layman  places  upon  the  ministry,  you  will  not  be  able 
to  understand  his  demands  for  preparation  or  to  sympathize  with 
him  in  these  demands.  This  then,  briefly,  almost  roughly,  is  the 
field  as  the  laity  see  it;  and  these  are  the  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart  which  the  laity  believe  to  be  demanded. 

He,  then,  who  is  adequately  prepared  for  the  priesthood  should 
bring  to  it,  first,  a  sound  body.  You  will  recall  the  extraordinary 
care  used  to  secure  perfect  bodily  health  in  the  priests  in  the  an- 
cient Temple,  and  this  is  not  without  its  lesson.  There  are  ex- 
ceptions, of  course,  to  all  rules:  and  therefore  to  this.  But  he  is 
bold  who  will  claim  that  he  is  an  exception,  and  he  is  bolder  yet 
who  will  accept  and  endorse  such  a  claim.  The  man  who  is  to 
move  both  freely  and  powerfully  in  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
world  needs  that  perfect  health  which  makes  him  practically  un- 
conscious of  his  body.  No  man  can  serve  two  masters,  and  no 
man  can  serve  his  stomach  or  his  lungs  or  his  liver  or  his  nerves 
and  effectually  serve  a  great  and  divine  cause  at  the  same  time. 
Self-consciousness  is  always  a  serious  weakness  and  defect,  and 
the  worst  form  of  this  is  physical  self-consciousness.  It  be- 
comes a  veritable  body  of  death  from  which  men  pray  in  vain  to 
be  set  free.  Both  mental  and  moral  vision  are  clouded  by  it,  where 
both  ought  to  be  most  serenely  clear.  It  warps  and  twists  and  dis- 
torts the  whole  man,  as  well  as  his  physical  frame.  The  successful 
minister  of  God  needs  good  red  blood  in  his  veins  and  arteries — of 
infinitely  more  consequence  to  him  than  the  bluest  blue  blood  on 
earth! — the  abounding  physical  resilency  which  breaks  the  effect  of 
every  rude  shock,  that  physical  buoyancy  which  will  rise  triumph- 
ant over  every  obstacle,  that  abundant  and  surplus  energy  which 
carries  a  man  swiftly  and  safely  through  every  emergency,  that 
steadiness  of  eye  and  nerve  necessary  for  every  delicate  task. 

To  this  he  should  add  such  general  education  and  culture  as  are 
represented  by  an  approved  and  standard  college  course:  a  mod- 
ern college  course,  in  which  such  humanities  as  economics  and 
socio!of=cy  and  political  science  and  industrial  history  have  full  rec- 
ognition.   This  is  not  because  he  has  special  need  of  the  Greek  and 


Latin,  though  this  is  true;  nor  because  he  will  make  direct  use  of 
his  mathematics  or  literature  or  even  of  his  philosophy;  but  be- 
cause he  does  need  the  maturing  and  ripening,  the  self-knowledge 
and  self-control,  the  general  ^elf-mastery,  which  rarely  come  as 
well  or  as  soon  by  any  other  process  or  by  any  other  form  of 
life.  The  other  great  and  standard  professions  are  coming  to 
recognize  this,  and  the  ministry  cannot  afford  to  lag  in  the  rear. 
The  proportion  of  college-bred  men  in  every  parish  is  constantly 
increasing,  and  he  who  is  to  be  an  influential  man  among  men  must 
meet  this  condition.  One  may  easily  bend  down,  if  necessary,  to 
touch  one's  fellows;  but  it  is  almost  impossible  to  reach  up  and 
make  your  touch  that  of  a  master-hand.  Consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, we  Americans  have  expressed  our  appreciation  of  the 
place  and  value  of  college  training,  in  that  we  have  so  chosen  our 
public  servants  and  representatives  that  one  per  cent,  of  the  pop- 
ulation (college  bred)  holds  forty  per  cent,  of  all  the  positions  of 
trust,  honor  and  responsibility  in  the  gift  of  the  people.  The 
priesthood,  as  the  laity  see  it  and  accept  it,  as  a  great  profession 
and  as  a  sacred  trust,  cannot  afiFord  to  fall  behind  in  this  matter. 

I  am  entirely  willing  to  admit,  and  without  discussion,  that  some 
men  who  have  had  scarcely  more  than  the  elements  of  a  com- 
mon school  training  have  reached  the  highest  positions  of  trust 
and  honor  and  responsibility  and  financial  reward;  and  that  some 
who  have  added  to  this  limited  early  education  very  inadequate 
special  preparation,  have  stood  high  in  the  Christian  Church  in  all 
ages.  To  deny  this  would  be  as  foolish  as  it  would  be  futile:  to 
ignore  it  would  be  very  short-sighted  indeed.  But  the  path  to 
successful  service,  in  the  Church  or  elsewhere,  is  an  exceedingly 
difficult  path.  Where  one  has  trodden  it  successfully,  hundreds 
have  been  beaten  back — discouraged  and  disheartened,  with  se- 
rious loss  of  that  which  with  better  preparation  might  have  been 
positive  productive  power,  a  loss  not  only  to  themselves  but  to  the 
community  at  large.  Worse  than  this  discouragement  and  fail- 
ure, however,  is  the  fact  that  other  hundreds  who  have  found 
place  and  even  preferment,  have  brought  disaster  and  suffering  to 
the  world  because  they  have  never  been  more  than  half  prepared 
for  their  work.  In  this  day,  and  in  thiS'  land  of  ours  which  keeps 
the  pathway  to  this  preparation  wide  open  to  all,  which  in  a  very 
generous  manner  makes  this  pathway  of  preparation  firm  and 
smooth;  which  supports  a  system  of  public  and  free  education,  in- 
cluding in  all  parts  of  the  country  primary  and  secondary  schools 
and  in  many  states  of  the  Union  covering  even  the  highest  forms 
of  general,  technical  and  professional  training;  with  scholarships 
and  fellowships  innumerable,  and  with  unusual  opportunities  af- 
forded   to    young    men,    who    must    make    their    own   way,    as    the 

10 


saying  goes — under  all  these  conditions  there  is  no  excuse  what- 
ever for  the  man  who  seeking  this  high  vocation  neglects  or  for 
any  reason  fails  to  secure  his  first  academic  degree.  Our  ques- 
tion is  simply  this:  not  what  may  barely  sufilice  in  the  way  of 
preparation,  rather  what  is  ample  and  sufficient:  not  how  slight 
the  preparation  may  be  and  yet  give  some  measure  of  success, 
rather  what  constitutes  complete  and  adequate  preparation  for  the 
largest   success. 

Added  to  thorough  college  training  must  come  technical  or 
professional  training.  Let  no  one  imagine  that  this  paper  is  to 
criticize  the  curricula  or  methods  now  known  in  our  theological 
seminaries.  I  am  not  entirely  uninformed  as  to  these  details.  I  be- 
lieve that  I  know  what  the  laity  think  this  special  training  ought  to 
be,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  know  what  it  is  not — in  several 
seminaries!  But  the  present  discussion  is  to  remain  purely  aca- 
demic, and  concerns  itself  with  what  ought  to  be,  and  in  this  matter 
at  least  with  what  is  entirely  possible. 

The  general  conditions  of  all  worthy  and  successful  technical  or 
professional  training  are  the  same  everywhere,  and  consist  (briefly) 
of  the  following: 

First — A  body  of  instructors  who  are  easily  and  generally  rec- 
ognized as  expert,  each  an  accepted  authority  in  his  special  field 
of  inquiry,  each  in  full  possession  of  his  powers,  each  still  vigor- 
ous and  alert  and  keenly  alive  to  all  that  is  transpiring  in  his  line 
of  thought  and  effort,  men  who  are  open-minded  and  sane  and  well- 
balanced,  men  to  whom  is  granted  all  possible  freedom  of  thought 
and  expression,  and  men  whose  mental  and  spiritual  activity  shows 
itself  at  least  occasionally  in  the  printed  page. 

The  converse  or  obverse  of  this,  of  course,  would  be  men  prac- 
tically unknown;  men  who  have  drifted  into  their  positions  as  into 
snug  harbors  of  safe  retreat  from  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of 
active  life,  or  who  having  been  counted  as  good  sailors  before  the 
invention  of  steam  have  never  taken  the  trouble  to  modernize  their 
craft  and  consequently  lie  becalmed  and  motionless  the  greater 
part  of  the  time;  men  of  whom  when  their  death-notice  appears 
other  men  look  dazed  and  exclaim,  "Why,  I  thought  he  died  sev- 
eral years  ago";  men  who  are  without  definite  opinions  or  con- 
cerning whose  opinions  little  is  known  and  less  is  cared;  men 
whose  lecture  manuscripts  are  yellow  with  age  and  so  faded  that 
even  their  authors  can  scarcely  decipher  the  pages;  men  who 
seem  strangely  dead  to  all  that  is  passing  about  them,  who  never 
feel  the  mighty  onward  flow  of  modern  life,  or  who  feeling  it 
simply  struggle  feebly  against  it;  men  whose  foresight  is  always 
gloomy  and  whose  hind-sight  is  ever  rose-tinted;  men  who  still 
think  the  world  too  weak  and  too  infantile  to  take  truth  except  in 

II 


such  rare  and  homeopathic  doses  as  they  may  see  fit  to  adminis- 
ter. There  are  such  men,  of  course,  even  in  the  world  of  to-day: 
and  far  be  it  from  me  to  assert  that  they  have  no  place  in  the 
divine  polity.  But  nothing  can  convince  the  laity  that  they  have 
a  rightful  place  in  our  schools  of  theology. 

Second — Sufficient  maintenance  to  give  both  faculty  and  stu- 
dents every  desirable  and  necessary  facility  for  the  prosecution  of 
their  investigations  and  studies. 

Sound  and  thorough  education  is  expensive;  it  makes  large  and 
just  and  necessary  demands  upon  material  resources,  that  it  may 
adequately  repay  those  who  give  it  their  time  and  effort.  I  am  not  to 
be  understood  as  declaiming  against  the  institution  which  is  small 
in  its  student  membership — that  condition  may  be  even  desirable, 
though  it  may  indicate  a  waste  of  both  instruction  and  money. 
But  institutions  whose  material  resources  are  so  limited  that  it 
is  simply  impossible  for  them  to  provide  either  adequate  instruc- 
tion or  reasonable  equipment,  are  certainly  under  the  bann — and 
ought  to  bestir  themselves  mightily  if  they  are  to  give  a  satis- 
factory reason  for  their  continued  existence.  Institutions  in  which 
one  man  is  supposed  to  be  expert  in  a  half-dozen  subjects,  in  which 
administration  and  instruction  are  disproportionately  blended,  or 
in  which  the  chief  instruction  is  sought  to  be  covered  by  a  short 
series  of  gratuitous  lectures  delivered  by  already  overworked  pres- 
byters, which  never  give  to  members  of  its  instructional  force  the 
Sabbatical  year  so  necessary  for  that  individual  study  and  ob- 
servation upon  which  all  individual  advancement  and  development 
are  conditioned; — such  institutions  cannot  meet  the  demands  of  to- 
day. It  is  to  be  hoped  that  there  are  none  like  this  within  the  lim- 
its  of   our   own   communion. 

Third — Over  both  instructors  and  students,  administrators  who 
are  large-minded,  resourceful,  good  judges  of  men,  swift  to  dis- 
cern weakness  but  neither  captious  nor  hypercritical,  industrious, 
and  truly  and  lawfully  ambitious. 

The  laity  believe  that  the  head  of  every  theological  seminary  has 
four-fold  relations  and  duties: 

To  the  trustees  he  must  be  the  man  who  wisely  and  vigorously 
executes  their  plans,  who  sees  that  every  man  in  the  faculty  is 
well-chosen  and  well-placed  and  that  every  dollar  is  well-spent, 
who  can  at  any  time  put  the  trustees  in  the  possession  of  any  infor- 
mation they  may  need  regarding  the  material  condition  or  education- 
al work  of  the  seminary,  who  will  make  it  possible  for  the  trustees 
to  consider  general  policies  rather  than  to  care  for  details,  and  who 
will  keep  the  trustees  in  touch  with  every  person  and  every  interest 
and  every  condition — but  only  in  touch,  not  burdened  thereby. 

To  his  faculty  he  is  the  one  who  makes  possible  uninterrupted 


attention  to  the  work  of  investigation  and  instruction,  who  sees 
that  each  has  the  greatest  equality  in  right  of  way  and  all  reason- 
able assistance  in  running  his  race,  who  prevents  friction  and  re- 
moves misunderstanding,  who  is  sufficiently  sympathetic  and  suf- 
ficiently informed  as  to  the  work  of  each  to  quicken  with  com- 
mendation where  commendation  will  count  most  and  to  stand  like  a 
wall  of  adamant  between  an  instructor  and  unjust  criticism  and  at- 
tack from  either  inside  or  outside  the  seminary  world,  whose 
character  and  example  and  authority  make  him  a  terror  to  every 
man  who  is  either  idle  or  incompetent;  and  who  possesses  the 
three  characteristics  absolutely  essential  to  successful  leadership 
— wisdom,  energy  and  tact. 

To  the  students  he  is  the  father  of  the  seminary  family,  one  who 
has  a  broad  outlook  both  within  and  without  the  institution,  who 
has  had  experience  and  observation  as  to  men  and  affairs  and  is 
therefore  a  wise  counselor,  who  has  forgotten  neither  his  youth 
nor  his  blunders  and  therefore  has  the  patience  of  a  true  friend, 
who  is  open  and  approachable  and  thoughtful  and  considerate — 
more  willing  to  close  his  eyes  occasionally  than  to  be  always  mak- 
ing an  "issue"  yet  with  a  constantly  firm  though  light  touch  upon 
the  reins — never  for  a  moment  permitting  a  personal  whim  to 
grow  into  a  permanent  tangential  movement. 

To  the  laity —  for,  brethren,  the  laity  would  really  like  to  know 
personally  the  men  who  are  directing  the  courses  and  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  work  and  fortunes  of  our  seminaries,  and  the  laity 
are  given  to  the  belief  that  there  might  be  possible  advantage  to 
the  Deans  themselves  in  contact  with  their  brethren  at  large — to 
the  laity  he  ought  to  be  a  man  who  breaks  bread  with  them  under 
their  own  roofs,  who  listens^  to  their  suggestions  and  studies  their 
thought  and  their  needs,  who  knowing  their  thought  and  their 
needs  plans  to  meet  both  as  far  as  in  him  lies,  who  reports  to  "them 
face  to  face  the  work  which  is  being  accomplished  either  by  the 
institution  or  by  some  student  in  whom  they  may  have  special  in- 
terest, who  devises  ways  of  exciting  the  interest  of  the  laity  and 
drawing  them  from  indifiference  to  active  cooperation,  who  actually 
feels  himself  in  some  way  accountable  even  to  the  laity  for  a  proper 
use  of  the  power  which  has  been  entrusted  to  him,  who  knowi 
his  graduates  and  their  success  or  failure  and  who  is  naturally  and 
properly  the  wisest  adviser  of  parishes  which  are  endeavoring  to 
fill  vacant  pulpits,  and  who  can  secure  the  confidence  of  the  laity 
by  the  largeness  and  the  value  and  the  generosity  of  his  service  to 
any  parish  seeking  his  advice. 

Fourth — Courses  of  study  which  are  thorough  yet  flexible,  com- 
prehensive, inclusive,  which  cover  the  conditions  and  demands  of 
the  life  of  to-day,  which  are  scientific  in  temper  and  in  method. 

13 


The  laity  cannot  and  do  not  assume  to  even  suggest  what  form 
the  work  in  technical  theology  should  take,  how  much  time  should 
be  given  to  that  which  is  exceedingly  remote,  how  much  mental 
and  spiritual  energy  shall  be  expended  upon  that  which  seems  at 
times  rather  mouldy.  But  that  part  of  the  laity  which  is  at  all 
informed  in  educational  thought  and  present-day  methods  in- 
sists that  topical  schemes  and  the  study  of  sources  and  the  use  of 
charts  and  all  similar  modern  helps  ought  to  have  due  considera- 
tion and  recognition,  and  the  laity  in  general  believe  that  some- 
where in  the  course  of  training  demanded  as  preparatory  to  the 
priesthood  there  should  be  sound  and  persistent  and  sufficient  in- 
struction in  these  four  subjects:  (i)  voice-building  and  use,  to  the 
point  of  distinct  enunciation,  proper  emphasis  and  pleasing  mod- 
ulation: (2)  the  details  of  parish  organization  and  administration, 
surely  at  least  until  the  fact  of  marriage  and  the  legitimacy  of 
children  are  duly  established  by  proper  and  accurate  and  authen- 
tic records,  till  such  account  is  kept  and  rendered  of  the  moneys 
passing  through  the  rector's  hands  as  will  guard  him  against  an 
intolerable  confusion  of  his  private  and  official  finances,  and  until 
at  least  an  outline  of  the  history  and  work  of  the  parish  is  pre- 
served for  posterity:  (3)  a  careful  study  of  the  place  and  value 
and  methods  of  the  modern  Sunday  school:  and  (4)  such  knowledge 
of  the  sociological  movement  of  the  day  as  will  throw  some  light 
upon  the  reasons  for  a  multiplicity  of  parochial  relations  and  un- 
dertakings, opportunities  and  duties,  never  dreamed  of  even  a  single 
generation  ago. 

Fifth — Practice-work  or  what  may  be  called  laboratory-work: 
now  possible  in  every  theological  seminary  not  so  remote  from  the 
world  as  to  have  the  wisdom  of  its  location  called  seriously  in 
question.  This  should  include  every  form  of  parish-work  and  or- 
ganization, is  the  concrete  or  objective  side  of  the  work  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made,  and  should  stand  to  theological 
training  precisely  as  the  practice-classes  of  a  well-regulated  nor- 
mal school  stand  to  educational  training. 

After  all  this,  what? — Or  do  you  think  that  the  demands  of  the 
laity  already  exceed  that  which  is  reasonable.  Well,  the  laity  are 
entirely  willing  to  work  with  inexperienced  graduates,  but  the 
laity  do  not  believe  that  it  is  either  wise  or  necessary  or  fitting 
that  inexperienced  graduates  be  put  over  them.  Though  an  attor- 
ney may  be  admitted  to  the  bar  at  an  early  age,  he  quite  generally 
remains  in  comparative  obscurity  and  under  supervision  until  he  is 
thirty.  A  physician  rarely  undertakes  much  independent  or  im- 
portant work  before  he  has  reached  that  age,  and  if  he  did  un- 
dertake it  he  would  meet  with  scant  encouragement.  Not  often 
does  a  teacher  go  to  the  head  of  a  school  at  an  earlier  age.    Most 

14 


business  men  and  nearly  all  technical  men  serve  a  like  apprentice- 
ship. The  Master  himself  was  thirty  before  He  began  to  teach 
and  preach.  Why  should  not  those  who  aspire  to  become  leaders 
of  men  in  spiritual  things  be  equally  careful  and  conscientious  and 
equally  patient  under  apprenticeship  in  their  preparation  for  this 
sacred  trust.  Years  ago  Mark  Hopkins,  then  President  of  Wil- 
liams College,  told  me  that  he  most  sincerely  believed  that  as  a 
rule  the  men  who  so  early  assume  full  charge  of  independent  par- 
ishes do  more  harm  than  good  before  they  reach  thirty  years  of 
age.  After  life-long  observation  in  our  own  communion,  my  re- 
vered father  was  firmly  of  like  opinion.  I  have  heard  more  than 
■one  Bishop  assent  to  this.  And  I  know  that  this  sentiment  is 
very  general  among  the  laity.  Men  and  women  who  have  given 
years  to  careful  and  conscientious  preparation  for  their  own  life- 
work,  including  a  long  apprenticeship,  smile  incredulously  if  not 
scornfully  when  some  youngster  in  both  years  and  training  is  put 
over  them  in  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  affairs.  Men  who  have 
grown  gray  in  the  intelligent  and  generous  service  of  the  Church 
find  it  hard  to  accept  such  men  as  leaders,  and  equally  hard  to 
be  compelled  to  be  their  ecclesiastical  nurses  until  they  are  able  to 
walk  alone  and  can  be  trusted  to  go  out  after  dark.  Why  should 
there  not  be  then,  after  graduation  from  the  Seminary,  some  years 
— five  years  if  you  please — of  service  under  approved  supervision, 
in  city  or  town  or  village,  before  full  charge  of  a  parish  is  either 
asked  or  granted.  If  in  the  city,  this  may  be  as  assistant  in  a 
parish  or  in  its  missions,  or  as  a  worker  in  some  of  the  almost  in- 
numerable social  or  socio-charitable  organizations,  or  in  all  of 
these  combined.  H  in  village  or  town,  then  under  the  charge  and 
guidance  of  some  nearby  priest,  or  possibly  under  a  wise  exten- 
sion of  the  powers  of  the  Arch-deacons-.  In  this  way  the  Bishop 
would  have  ample  opportunity  to  study  the  man,  the  laity  would 
come  into  better  knowledge  of  him,  and  above  all  and  better  than 
all  the  man  would  come  into  better  knowledge  of  himself.  Then 
the  final  call  to  what  I  venture  to  call  the  full  priesthood  would 
come  as  it  surely  came  of  old — from  without  as  well  as  from 
within,  possibly  from  without  before  from  within:  and  the  Church 
would  have  that  greater  assurance  of  successful  service  which  fol- 
lows upon  a  consensus  of  opinion  carefully  established  upon  suf- 
ficient observation. 

But  suppose  this  call  to  an  independent  position  does  not  come? 
Well,  there  still  remains  what  ought  to  be,  or  ought  to  be  made  to 
be,  the  large  and  useful  and  dignified  position  of  an  assistant.  Sure- 
ly, no  man  who  rejects  this  is  fit  for  the  priesthood.  It  does  not 
seem  necessary  to  waste  words  over  that  proposition.  There  are 
thousands  of  men,  the  world  over,  happy  and  successful  and  ef- 


ficient  in  subordinate  positions — and  why  may  not  this  be  true  of 
the  clergy?  But  even  if  the  failure  is  complete,  there  are  still  other 
thousands'  of  men  who  find  no  place  or  welcome  in  the  profession 
which  they  have  chosen,  and  quietly  and  patiently  turn  aside  to  oth- 
er fields. 

This,  then,  brethren,  is  my  thesis,  all  too  inadequately  presented 
and  defended:  that  as  an  office  and  calling  the  priesthood  stands 
very  high  in  the  opinion  of  the  laity,  that  it  calls  for  extraordinary 
qualities  of  mind  and  heart  sustained  by  a  sound  body  and  made 
effective  by  peculiar  personal  experience  and  power,  and  that  ade- 
quate preparation  for  this  sacred  vocation  demands  long  and  thor- 
which  they  have  chosen,  and  quietly  and  patiently  turn  aside  to 
other  fields. 


i6 


Date  Due                         1 

f?     10     'AC 

'  ''      .-5»-  ^1        ^  !  . 

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